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Grocery employee without hearing claims customer assaulted her to get her attention

Grocery employee without hearing claims customer assaulted her to get her attention
Posted at 6:37 PM, Apr 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-24 23:45:03-04

An employee of a Virginia Publix grocery store who is deaf and lacks peripheral vision claimed she was assaulted by a customer after the employee said she could not hear the woman, WRIC-TV reported

Liberty Gratz was reportedly stocking a shelf when a woman trying to get Gratz's attention punched her from behind. The punch got Gratz's attention, and Gratz was able to point the woman in the right direction, but the incident left Gratz stunned. 

"She doesn't have that peripheral vision, so she's really focused on her work," Gratz's mom Jeanette Gratx told WRIC. "She doesn't always notice the people beside her."

Liberty Gratz later had store management review video footage, but managers were unable to make out the woman. 

"She could still feel it when I picked her up from work," Jeanette Gratz told WRIC. "How would you feel if you were working and someone just came up behind you and decided to punch you?"

Liberty Gratz told WRIC she wishes she could talk to the woman about being kind to people, whether they have a disability or not.